The changes in the soil physico-chemical properties provoked
by digestate tended to decrease with time, leading to a scarce
residual effect. The digestate provided a significant amount of
ammonium N, which is rapidly nitrified and thus directly available
to crops in the short-term.Moreover, the addition of digestate
led to an increased amount of available P in the soil; hence, its
agronomic use should be based not only on the N but also on the
P it supplies. The digestate increased soil microbial biomass and
dehydrogenase, alkaline phosphatase and -glucosidase activities,
although this effect was always less significant than that of the cattle
manure, which provided a greater amount of organic carbon to
the soil.